Are Reference Checks Eliminating You From Consideration In Positions You Interviewed For?

In a survey conducted by OfficeTeam (full survey here), it is noted that just over one in five candidates (21%) are eliminated from consideration after speaking to their professional contacts. More than a third of those surveyed (36%) said they were most interested in obtaining input on an applicant’s past job duties and experience. Second to this was learning about the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses (31%).

Managers were posed the question, "When speaking to an applicant's job references, what is the most important information you hope to receive?" A full breakdown of their responses are as follows:

Description of past job duties and experience	36%
A view into the applicant's strengths and weaknesses	31%
Confirmation of job title and dates of employment	11%
Description of workplace accomplishments	8%
A sense of the applicant's preferred work culture	7%
Other/don't know	7%
	100%

I can tell you from experience that when a handful of candidates are still in the running for a position, and all credentials and experience are fairly equal, reference checks often end up being the difference in the final decision. A bad reference can be damaging, so be wise who you choose to be reference prior to them being checked. I would rather talk to a reference who has hands-on knowledge of the candidates unique qualities, achievements and experience versus speaking to someone who holds a big title. Also, it’s not a bad idea to supply more references than required, and definitely make sure to get permission from the people you list. It reflects poorly when a reference is called and is taken completely by surprise.

I know people in HR departments at companies who have no qualms with calming any and all former managers, colleagues or personnel from the applicant company’s former HR department they can find. The reason of course is that most of the time a more candid picture will be painted by those who can serve as references but are not directly provided by the candidate. I have used this method to discover big discrepancies in the length of work service stated (by as much as 18 months), and in one case found out the candidate had never worked for a listed company at all! After one interview with a prospective candidate, there were enough red flags raised in the responses given that I was highly suspicious. That skepticism was confirmed when I contacted the Ivy League school the individual had supposedly graduated from and it was confirmed no one with that name had graduated, let alone attended school there.

But don’t be completely frightened by all of this because there are still a good share of companies and employers out there who do not take time to check a single reference. I don’t agree with it or advocate it, but it happens. In a couple of my previous jobs before being a recruiter, I worked for organizations that didn’t call a single reference. Be ready with solid references, but don’t be totally surprised if they aren’t ever checked.

As a last note, I addressed the issues of what prospective employers ask about in reference checks, and how to deal with bad references from previous employers. Both of these discussions can be found here.